


A Eulogy

by Mad_Girl_Lullaby



Category: Riverdale - Fandom
Genre: 1x04 AU, Angst, Gen, Homeless Jughead, jughead jones III deserves better, like seriously he needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-09-30 23:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10174370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Girl_Lullaby/pseuds/Mad_Girl_Lullaby
Summary: After the Twilight was shut down Jughead feels unmoored, detached from everyone around him. So what's a homeless, hopeless teen supposed to do? The choice he makes next is out of desperation but somehow is also the most freeing thing he's ever done. After losing his family, losing Archie, and now losing his home Jughead only sees dead ends in Riverdale. And a small twisted part of him wonders, did Jason Blossom have the right idea?





	

The wind whistled around him, blowing against his neck and setting the chill deep within his bones. Jughead shivered, pulling his hoodie up onto his head and over his beanie. The drive in was gone, his home was gone and no matter how angry he got at the city bureaucracy or Mr. Andrews or at fucking life for continuously kicking him when he was down, Jughead had no choice but to move on. To let go of the drive in and move on, this sort of lifestyle forces one to let go of sentimental notions of home as a material place. He hadn't had a home for over a year, not a real home anyway. With a whole happy family. His mom was gone, Jelly was gone, and his relationship with his dad was a joke. 

Before, even when he had no one he had Archie. His best friend. The only person in this world that understood and accepted Jughead in every and all ways. At least that's what he'd always thought. Until this summer. Where the one person Jughead thought would always stay abandoned him. Left him behind like so much scattered trash along the sidewalk. And maybe Jughead's bitterness was exasperated by his situation but this wound, this festering divide between them had been spreading for sometime. But what started as a small cut became a stab, festering and infected so Jughead cut the limb from the body in a final act of self preservation. Because if there was one thing Jughead Jones was good at it was surviving. And he didn't need anyone to survive.

The red neon lights of Pop's bathed his face as he walked into the restaurant. He smiled tiredly at Pop before hunkering down in a booth in the back. The shop was relatively empty due to the declining hour but Pop always let Jughead linger late into the night. Except tonight would be different, tonight Jughead would leave before closing. Tonight Jughead would give Pop an extra tight hug, thank the kind man for always looking out for him, and leave the shoppe by 10:30 pm. Because he had a sixty minute walk to meet a midnight date at the edge of town. 

"Hey Pop." He greeted as the man set a plate of fries in front of him, waving away the crumpled cash that rested in his hand. Pop was omniscient, all knowing without a single question but never intrusive. Jughead would miss him.

He ate the fries slowly, trying to impress their taste to his tongue as he pulled out a notepad and a pen. He scribbled the words over and over again. Writing and crossing out the words almost instantaneously. His thoughts were muddled, running fast and conflated with emotion. Does he write a lot or a little? A long epic eulogy to the life, to the town that raised and destroyed him. Or maybe a short simple message, a final fuck you to everything and everyone that bore down and trapped him. Was he sad or relieved? Was this a wound or a balm? Nothing made sense anymore. All Jughead knew was his own exhaustion, his mental and emotional fatigue and the itch to do something drastic and rash just for the sake of it. Because in the end he was so very very tired. He'd regret not finishing his novel.

"Hey Juggie, what're you doing here so late?" Betty's voice floated down to him. He looked up, the blonde smiled and sat down across from him. He took a minute to look at her, her blonde hair tinged red and gold by the neon lights and her eyes smiling but concerned. He'd lost her when he'd lost Archie, cut her off because he couldn't bare the hurt if she decided to leave him to. And sweet, caring Betty became collateral damage in his own personal war with sentimentality. A calculated loss in the goal nomadism, because love and friendship left you weak and suffocating under their tight grip. 

"Just finishing something up. I think I've finally figured out an ending." He said before the silence stretched too long. Uncomfortably long. He never wanted to make Betty uncomfortable.

"An end? To your novel?" She raised an eyebrow, curious at his vague wording. She was always too intuitive. That was one of the things he loved about her. 

"Yeah. In away." He smiled lightly. Then looked at the clock on his phone, 10:30, time to go. Suddenly Jughead knew what to write and how to pass along the message to the two people he'd loved and lost this last year. 

Jughead reached into his pocket, pulled out the picture of him and Jellybean at the drive in. He took a moment to stare at it, memorize his sister's face, he wanted to remember her smiling. 

Jughead flipped the picture around and scribbled a few words, not the scathing fuck you he had imagined nor the epic eulogy he'd drafted, but instead a couple words and a few lines to say goodbye. Sometimes simplicity won out over his poetic integrity.

"Hey could you give this to Archie next time you see him?" He wraps the picture inside a piece of folded paper and hands it to Betty. She takes it with hesitant, questioning hands.

"Do you wanna give it to him yourself? You can walk with me, I'm sure he's still awake." Her words are shaky but her hands grip the photo tightly. She looks at him with desperate eyes, she senses the finality of the action but hasn't put all the pieces together yet. Betty was alway too intuitive. Jughead only smiled before walking over to her side and kneeling to wrap her in a hug. She returns it on instinct and if her fingers grip his jacket a little too tight they don't mention it. 

"Thanks Betts. For everything. I'm sorry we drifted apart, but I just wanted to tell you that you were always a great friend." The words come out small, a whisper in her ear and feeling wholly insufficient as he pulls away and stands. There is so much more, so much more he's always wanted to tell her, so much more left unsaid between them and those words hang so heavy that they sag his shoulders and pull the corners of her lips down. He remembers a little blonde girl and red headed boy and how they'd spend summers chasing each other and laughing together, with a soft smile he lets them go. 

He grabbed his backpack and began turning around.

"Juggie-" her hand shoots out wrapping around his wrist. She wants to hold him there, tether him to the spot and demand answers. Instead he twines their fingers together, holds her hand for a moment before giving it a gentle squeeze and letting it go. This time she lets him. 

He gives Pop that extra tight hug, whispers a quiet thank you ignoring the wetness in the older man's gentle eyes. 

This is an end.  
-

The bus station's empty this time of night, only a few tired lonely passengers linger about. All scruffy and world weary, same as him. The ticket burns in his hand, asking him if this is really what he wants to do. And it is. With the picture gone and his goodbyes sent Jughead feels ready to detach himself from Riverdale. Feels ready to wake up to a new horizon tomorrow. Betty would tell him to stay, to think about his friends and his education. Archie, well Archie would ask him if he's sure, ask him what brought this on and how he could fix it for Jughead. Then he'd get that look, that sad desperate look in his eyes that Betty had after he'd hugged her. And if Jughead had to see the heartbreak in his best, oldest friend's eyes then he'd never leave. It was hard enough turning away from Betty, he doesn't know if he's strong enough to do that to Archie.

The ticket goes out of state to some town he's in never heard of but knows is bigger then Riverdale. He'll spend a few days there, get lost figure out his next move then buy a ticket to the farthest city away. To somewhere along the coast where he can see the beach and lay in the sand. Some big sprawling city that won't notice or care about another wandering face, someplace that'll swallow him up and forget his face.

Jughead falls asleep on the bus, to the soothing motion of the wheels driving further and further away from Riverdale. Closing his eyes and hoping to wake up under a different sky.


End file.
